Addressing a panel of fellow MPs and peers on privacy, he rejected an argument that tabloids need to print stories about the private lives of celebrities in order to sell.

âIf the only way a business can stay afloat is by engaging in immoral or unethical behaviour, then that business should either change its model or go out of business,â he said.

âNo one said Auschwitz should have been kept open because it created jobs.â

He made the comment while appearing alongside Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan .

Media figures took to Twitter to criticise Mr Goldsmith. James Chapman, the political editor of the Daily Mail, tweeted: âHaving visited Auschwitz last month, I find comparison with between death camps and errant newspapers by Zac Goldsmith deeply inappropriate.â

Janice Turner of The Times said: âZac Goldsmith compares tabloids to Auschwitz. Tom Watson & Steve Coogan compared them to mafia. And itâs newspapers who are sensationalist?â Mr Goldsmith later used his Twitter page to accept he should not have cited the death camp.

He tweeted: âNo one can genuinely believe I equated tabloids to concentration camps. Silly.â

Responding to suggestions that bringing Auschwitz into the discussion at all was âill-advisedâ, he added: âPerhaps. The point is valid, but I could/shd have made it citing something different.â

The Holocaust Educational Trust said it agreed he should have used a different example.